


Talion

by Capucine



Series: Consequences of Rebellion [2]
Category: X-Men (Movieverse), X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Bloodshed, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Mention of Charles Xavier, Mention of Erik Lensherr - Freeform, Past Character Death, Rebellion, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-27
Packaged: 2018-07-18 16:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7322737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex hopes he can convince Raven to convince Erik to stop the rebellion.</p>
<p>Raven knows that's hopeless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Talion

**Author's Note:**

> A continuation, I guess.

Erik was not a forgiving man.

Perhaps he had been once. Perhaps he could be, in certain circumstances.

But those circumstances were so far past where they were that it was impossible. Nothing could turn the tide of the Northern Rebel Army, put it to a stop.

Raven knew this better than anyone.

She had seen him kill before. She had helped. In this day and age, there was little that could be done to retaliate that wasn’t as harsh and big as this. A small action of defiance would have lost the heads of all involved—as had happened before.

As the heads that Erik had had properly buried easily showed.

It hadn’t been Erik’s original intention to strike hard and violent. Raven also knew that. He fully wanted to stay out of this mess, to simply be allowed to live in peace in spite of his past. In spite of what they had done and were doing to people like him.

It wasn’t to be.

If Raven were a poet, she’d make some verse about the blood of his family crying for vengeance. As it was, she simply saw the fact: they’d killed his family in cold blood. Murdered them like animals. Those fuckers deserved to die.

A child didn’t deserve to die that way, nor his wife—nor most people.

Raven didn’t make attachments to vulnerable people like that, if she could help it. She didn’t make many attachments at all. 

Unfortunately, she already had to both Erik and Charles, and as much as she wanted to sever those ties sometimes, she found she couldn’t. And so, she did what she could, staying afloat and letting what happened come.

And so, Erik’s seizing of a town further down wasn’t a surprise to anyone, even though it was unwanted by many.

And so, Charles’s countermeasure wasn’t a surprise to Raven, even though it was unwanted by her.

He wasn’t on the King’s side, or so he said. He didn’t understand people like Raven and Erik, in her opinion, people who had truly suffered for who they were. He had grown up entirely privileged, noble and coddled.

She knew because she spent much of her childhood with him.

And he sent someone to try to convince her to stop Erik.

“I’m not going to do it,” she told Alex the instant he’d shown up. The blond boy shook his head anyway, protesting.

“You didn’t even hear what I have to say.”

“I don’t need to. I know what Charles wants.”

Alex Summers scoffed at that, scuffing the floor of her tent with his boot. Tents made for wonderful, packable accomodations when sort of part of a rebel army, and she honestly preferred it to a giant stone building. Castles were made to keep people out—or some of them in.

She raised an eyebrow, as if to say, ‘Am I wrong?’

He didn’t deny that. “Look, Raven, Charles is trying to avert bloodshed. How can you argue with that? How can you look at what Erik’s doing and think it’s right?”

“It’s justified,” Raven replied, looking away. “And he hasn’t been able to stop much bloodshed in any other case—why would now be different?”

“Because Erik can stop this whole thing,” Alex responded.

“And die? Because that’s what the King will do. He will murder him, and us, and me, and anyone even slightly involved. He may even execute you, Alexander,” she snapped back. “Who knows why you were here, after all? Can’t take any chances if you’re a fat tyrant!”

Alex seemed a little shocked, but he returned, “And what does murdering so many people prove? You’re staining the land with blood—“

“The land’s already stained with blood—it has been for years. The only difference is, it isn’t only _our_ blood this time,” Raven said darkly, almost wanting to strike Alex. He was blind—blinded by Charles’s idealistic bullshit.

“Maybe there isn’t an us and them—“

“Don’t even try. There has been since the beginning—since the divergence. And now, there is definitely an us and them—the _armies_ fighting each other.” Her voice was heated, but she dropped it, murmuring, “I hope you survive. Tell Charles I won’t help him.”

Alex let out a frustrated huff. “Don’t you even care about all these people dying?”

She did. She hated it. But she turned dead eyes on Alex anyway, and murmured, “No. I don’t give a damn.”

Alex shook his head. “You’re as bad as Erik.”

She didn’t dignify that with a response. 

Bad was relative in this case. At least Erik was willing to fight, had the ability to feel.

She wasn’t always sure Charles did.

Alex left without another word.

The rebellion continued on its path.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it makes sense. This will have another work in the series after this at least.


End file.
